Shampoo compositions comprising various combinations of cleansing surfactant and conditioning agents are known. These products typically comprise an anionic cleansing surfactant in combination with a conditioning agent. Amongst the most popular conditioning agents used in shampoo compositions are oily materials such as mineral oils, naturally occurring oils such as triglycerides and silicone polymers. These are generally present in the shampoo as dispersed hydrophobic emulsion droplets. Conditioning is achieved by the oily material being deposited onto the hair resulting in the formation of a film.
However, many shampoo compositions do not provide a sufficient level of deposition of conditioning agent onto the hair and skin during the cleansing process. Without such deposition, large proportions of conditioning agent are rinsed away during the cleansing process and therefore provide little or no conditioning benefit.
One known method for improving deposition of a conditioning agent from such shampoo compositions involves the use of cationic deposition polymers. These polymers may be synthetic or natural polymers that have been modified with cationic substituents.
A problem associated with the use of cationic deposition polymers is that is difficult to obtain a good balance of conditioning benefits at different stages of the shampooing process.
For example, some cationic deposition polymers are effective at improving wet stage hair sensory attributes during the stages of washing and rinsing, but give an undesirable hair feel after drying.
The present inventors have found that this problem can be overcome by using a specific combination of cationic polymers in a shampoo composition which comprises small droplets of a water-insoluble oily conditioning agent.
In particular, shampoo compositions of the invention give improved wet conditioning benefits, such as soft feel, smooth feel and combability when wet, with a reduction in dry hair sensory negatives such as the heavy, greasy or coated feel that many consumers experience when high charge density cationic polymers and oily conditioning agents are combined in shampoos.